Julian Edwards (December 11, 1855 - September 5, 1910) was an English composer of light operatic music, who composed many successful Broadway shows in the Progressive Era. He attempted to introduce new levels of musical sophistication to the genre. Some of his songs achieved popularity at the time.
Edwards was born in Manchester, England, and studied in Edinburgh and London. He became conductor of the Carl Rosa Opera Company. He also conducted at the Royal English Opera House, where he met his wife, prima donna Philippine Siedle. [1] He composed a grand opera entitled Victorian, first performed at the Theatre Royal, Sheffield on 6 April 1883, which was also performed at Covent Garden Opera House on 19 January 1884. The libretto, by J F Reynolds-Anderson, was based on Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's play The Spanish Student.
He soon turned his attention to lighter music, moving to New York at the invitation of Broadway producer James C. Duff, and creating a number of Broadway shows, beginning with Jupiter (1892), to a libretto by Harry B. Smith. He followed it with 17 more musicals. [2]
His first big success was Madeleine, or the Magic Kiss (1893). This was his first collaboration with playwright and lyricist Stanislaus Stange, with whom he worked on several other projects. They later had an even greater success with Brian Boru (1896), a "Romantic Irish Opera" based on the life of the medieval Irish king. [3] One of their critically successful operas was The Wedding Day which premiered for the grand opening of the newly renovated Wieting Opera House on September 15, 1896 before eventually running on Broadway at the Casino Theatre in 1897. [4] [5]
Among his many other works, he also wrote Jolly Musketeer (1898), The Princess Chic (1900), [6] Dolly Varden (1902), When Johnny Comes Marching Home (1902), Love's Lottery (1904), The Gay Musician (1908, with book and lyrics by Chas. J. Campbell and Edward Siedle, his brother-in-law), The Motor Girl (1909) and The Girl and the Wizard (1909). Love's Lottery was intended as a vehicle for the German opera singer Ernestine Schumann-Heink, who withdrew after fifty performances.
Some of Edwards' songs with lyricist Stanislaus Stange were published as independent pieces. Their patriotic song My Own United States from When Johnny Comes Marching Home, achieved particular popularity. [1] Among the stars of the era who performed his work were Lillian Russell, Jefferson De Angelis, Della Fox, Christie MacDonald, and Lulu Glaser. [2]
While writing his Broadway shows, Edwards continued to work on more serious pieces. He made his name in America with an operatic adaptation of the play King René's Daughter (1893), presented as a one-act lyrical drama. [3] Edwards wrote the libretto himself, from an existing English translation. The opera was criticised on the grounds that his music "wallows in Wagner". Edwards had intended to submit it for the Sonzogno prize for one-act operas, but it was completed too late. [7] The work had only limited success. [8]
He also composed The Patriot (1907), another one-act grand opera, to a libretto by Stange, set in the American War of Independence. He completed two more grand operas, Elfinella and Corinne, but these were unproduced. He was particularly proud of his sacred cantatas, including The Redeemer and Lazarus. [3] His oratorio Mary Magdalene was not fully completed before his death. In 1907 he set a translation of P. D. A. Atterbom's poem The Mermaid.
He wrote incidental music for productions of many plays, including Quo Vadis , In the Palace of the King, Gringoire, The Wooing of Priscilla, King Robert of Sicily, The Cipher Code, In a Balcony, The Land of Heart's Desire and others.
He also published collections of songs, including "Sunlight and Shadow", and copyists' full scores of two symphonies, in E major and A minor, exist in the Tams-Witmark collection at the Library of Congress.
When interviewed in 1908 Edwards was asked about the proper relationship between a composer and a lyricist. He took the view that there is no single model but stated that "to my mind the ideal collaboration between the musician and the librettist is that of Gilbert & Sullivan. They stand alone." He especially praised Gilbert's libretti, and described Sullivan's music as "clever". He dismissed his own work in light music, emphasising his serious works, particularly his operas and cantatas. [9] Initially, an opponent of Wagnerism, Edwards had become a strong supporter of the movement. He believed that Richard Strauss's Salome (1905) was the most important work of recent modern music.
Edwards died of heart failure in 1910. He is described as a "serious, but poorly endowed" composer by theatre historian Gerald Bordman, but Bordman's comments on Edwards concern only his operettas.
A libretto is the text used in, or intended for, an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata or musical. The term libretto is also sometimes used to refer to the text of major liturgical works, such as the Mass, requiem and sacred cantata, or the story line of a ballet.
Otto Abels Harbach, born Otto Abels Hauerbach was an American lyricist and librettist of nearly 50 musical comedies and operettas. Harbach collaborated as lyricist or librettist with many of the leading Broadway composers of the early 20th century, including Jerome Kern, Louis Hirsch, Herbert Stothart, Vincent Youmans, George Gershwin, and Sigmund Romberg. Harbach believed that music, lyrics, and story should be closely connected, and, as Oscar Hammerstein II's mentor, he encouraged Hammerstein to write musicals in this manner. Harbach is considered one of the first great Broadway lyricists, and he helped raise the status of the lyricist in an age more concerned with music, spectacle, and stars. Some of his more famous lyrics are "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes", "Indian Love Call" and "Cuddle up a Little Closer, Lovey Mine".
Victor August Herbert was an American composer, cellist and conductor of English and Irish ancestry and German training. Although Herbert enjoyed important careers as a cello soloist and conductor, he is best known for composing many successful operettas that premiered on Broadway from the 1890s to World War I. He was also prominent among the Tin Pan Alley composers and was later a founder of the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP). A prolific composer, Herbert produced two operas, a cantata, 43 operettas, incidental music to 10 plays, 31 compositions for orchestra, nine band compositions, nine cello compositions, five violin compositions with piano or orchestra, 22 piano compositions and numerous songs, choral compositions and orchestrations of works by other composers, among other music.
Henry Louis Reginald De Koven was an American music critic and prolific composer, particularly of comic operas.
Charles Rudolf Friml was a Czech-born composer of operettas, musicals, songs and piano pieces, as well as a pianist. After musical training and a brief performing career in his native Prague, Friml moved to the United States, where he became a composer. His best-known works are Rose-Marie and The Vagabond King, each of which enjoyed success on Broadway and in London and were adapted for film.
Arthur Reed Ropes, better known under the pseudonym Adrian Ross, was a prolific writer of lyrics, contributing songs to more than sixty British musical comedies in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He was the most important lyricist of the British stage during a career that spanned five decades. At a time when few shows had long runs, nineteen of his West End shows ran for over 400 performances.
Harry Lawrence Freeman was an American neoromantic opera composer, conductor, impresario and teacher. He was the first African-American to write an opera that was successfully produced. Freeman founded the Freeman School of Music and the Freeman School of Grand Opera, as well as several short-lived opera companies which gave first performances of his own compositions. During his life, he was known as "the black Wagner."
Gustave Adolph Kerker, sometimes given as Gustav or Gustavus Kerker, was a Kingdom of Prussia-born composer and conductor who spent most of his life in the United States. He became a musical director for Broadway theatre productions and wrote the music for a series of operettas and musicals produced on Broadway and in the West End. His most famous musical was The Belle of New York (1897).
Henry Martyn Blossom Jr. was an American writer, playwright, novelist, opera librettist, and lyricist. He first gained wide attention for his second novel, Checkers: A Hard Luck Story (1896), which was successfully adapted by Blossom into a 1903 Broadway play, Checkers. It was Blossom's first stage work and his first critical success in the theatre. The play in turn was adapted by others creatives into two silent films, one in 1913 and the other in 1919, and the play was the basis for the 1920 Broadway musical Honey Girl. Checkers was soon followed by Blossom's first critical success as a lyricist, the comic opera The Yankee Consul (1903), on which he collaborated with fellow Saint Louis resident and composer Alfred G. Robyn. This work was also adapted into a silent film in 1921. He later collaborated with Robyn again; writing the book and lyrics for their 1912 musical All for the Ladies.
The Wizard of the Nile is a comic opera in three acts with music by composer Victor Herbert and a libretto by Harry B. Smith. This was Herbert's second comic opera after Prince Ananias, and was his first real success.
Stanislaus Stange (1862–1917) was a playwright, librettist and lyricist who created many Broadway shows in the fin-de-siecle era and early 20th century. After minor success as an actor, Stange made his career as a writer in the musical theatre, moving towards more varied theatrical work before his death.
Edward Siedle was an American property master and technical director who worked mainly at the Metropolitan Opera. During his tenure at The Met, he was directly in charge of all technical elements through one of its most innovative eras.
John Cheever Goodwin was an American musical theatre librettist, lyricist and producer. Goodwin was born in Boston and graduated from Harvard University. He began a career in journalism before turning to writing for the stage. Early in his theatrical career he worked for Alice Oates, acting in her company and translating French opera bouffe into English for performance by her company. He often worked with composers Edward E. Rice and Woolson Morse. Goodwin was one of the earliest American writers dedicated to musical theatre librettos and lyrics. His first successful libretto was Evangeline in 1874, and his last new work was produced in 1903.
Max Freeman was a German actor, theater director, theater manager, playwright, and producer who was primarily active in the United States. After beginning his career in his native city of Berlin in 1868, Freeman eventually moved to the United States in 1871 where he began his career in America as the theatre manager for the Germania Theatre in New York City. He had a lengthy stage career as an actor in America from 1873 until his death in 1912. Known as the "godfather of comic opera", he particularly excelled in performances in roles from light operas and musical comedies, and was also responsible for directing and producing works from this genre on Broadway. He also directed and played parts in straight plays as well. His adaptation of Jacques Offenbach's Orfée aux enfers was performed for the grand opening of Broadway's Bijou Theatre in 1883, and his original musical play Claudius Nero, based on Ernest Erkstein's novel Nero, premiered at Niblo's Garden in 1890.
Alfred George Robyn was an American composer, organist, conductor, and music educator. While his compositional output consisted of a wide range of music, he is best remembered as a composer of light operas and Broadway musicals. He composed the Broadway musicals Princess Beggar (1907), The Yankee Tourist (1907), All for the Ladies (1912), and Pretty Mrs. Smith (1914); many in collaboration with lyricist and playwright Henry Blossom. His compositional output also consisted of fourteen operas, two oratorios, Symphony in D minor, the symphonic poem Pompeii, a piano concerto, a piano quintet, numerous works for solo piano, and over two hundred songs. His best known work is the comic opera The Yankee Consul.
Louis Harrison was an actor, playwright, comedian, lyricist, librettist, and theatre director. As both a performer and playwright, he was mainly active within the genres of musical theatre and light opera.
The Wedding Day is a comic opera in three acts with music by Julian Edwards and a libretto by Stanislaus Stange. Prior to a production on Broadway, the work premiered for the grand opening of the newly renovated Wieting Opera House in Syracuse, New York, on September 15, 1896. It was staged at The Boston Theatre where it began a two-week run on February 7, 1897. Critic Roland Burke Hennessy of The Illustrated American wrote, "I consider The Wedding Day to be by far the best native comic opera we have had in many a year."
Frederic G. Ranken was an American librettist, lyricist, and playwright for light operas and musicals staged on Broadway from 1899 through 1907. His greatest success was the libretto for Reginald De Koven's 1905 comic opera Happyland. He also wrote libretti for composers Victor Herbert and Ludwig Engländer, and was a lyricist for composers Alfred Baldwin Sloane and Gustave Kerker among others. As a playwright he wrote the books for several musicals.
Silvio Hein was an American composer, songwriter, conductor, and theatrical producer. He was a songwriter for Tin Pan Alley and composed the scores to fourteen Broadway musicals. His most successful stage work was the 1917 musical Flo-Flo which he created with the French librettist and playwright Fred de Gresac. His songs were also interpolated into musicals created by others, including The Little Duchess and Ziegfeld Follies. In addition to his work writing music, he also worked as both a conductor and producer on Broadway. In 1914 he was a founding member of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers.
The Princess Chic is an operetta in three acts with music by Julian Edwards and a libretto by Kirke La Shelle. Set in 15th century France, the work tells the tale of a fictional romance between Princess Chic of Normandy and Charles the Bold, the Duke of Burgundy during the time when the duke is in conflict with King Louis XI. While the operetta was not a success with New York critics and its Broadway run in 1900 was short, the work was ultimately profitable for its creators and had a lengthy tour that lasted ten years. The work is notable for forwarding the career of popular operetta soprano Christie MacDonald who portrayed the title role as her first leading part on the stage. Both musical selections from the operetta and a complete vocal score of the work were published by M. Witmark & Sons.
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